The Gift of Jesus: Might God Isaiah 9:6; various texts

The Gift of Jesus: Mighty God

Isaiah 9:6; Various Texts

The Child who is God

• Isaiah describes this coming king with a unique name:
  • “Mighty God” (ʾēl gibbôr)
  • Mighty: Strength of the king to overcome his enemies
• Isaiah often uses names symbolically
  • ) In Isa. 7:14, Immanuel is not the actual name of the child, but rather what his presence represents, “God with us”
  • When one looks at how Isaiah uses this name in 10:21, “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.”
    • It is obvious that the prophet understood this child is to be identified as God Himself
  • And yet, Isaiah describes this Mighty God as:
    • A child who will be born
  • To a monotheistic Jewish prophet:
    • How can the eternal God be born some time in the future?!
    • How can God became a man?!
      • And not just appear as human
      • But be born as a child?!

 

Who is this Mighty God?

• The answer came 700 years after Isaiah wrote it
• Not in a castle, where you would expect a king to be born
  • But in a stable
• Not to the rejoicing of the nations
  • But to sounds of animals
  • And the praise of angels
• When this king was born, who is Mighty God
  • He came into the world like every other human being (Phil. 2:6-8)
  • Because this Mighty God came to carry the name Jesus (Matt. 1:21)

 

The Gift of the Mighty God

• Jesus came to show us who God is (John 14:7-9; see also 10:30; Matt. 11:27)
• But, because Jesus is Mighty God, He came to give us what God in His might provides in Isaiah (Isa 63:1; see also 1:24; Isa 49:26; Isa 60:16)
  • He comes to provide us with salvation
    • And not just from our earthly foes
    • But from sin and death itself

 

The Gift We Can Share

• If we have received Jesus as Mighty God, the Giver of Salvation
  • Then we have a gift to give to the world (Luke 2:10-11)

 

 

 

So What?

• Have we received the Gift of Jesus, Mighty God, Giver of Salvation?
• Are we giving that gift to others?

Meditation Verse: Luke 2:10-11